Pump or no Pump?

I have been a Diabetic for 9 years now, but I havent actually taken it seriously. I dont check my sugar and I sometimes forget to take my insulin. I went to my family doctor and then he sent me to an Diabetes Specialist. I have always wanted a pump but didnt know if it was affordable or even the right thing for me. I asked him if I could get one and he told me it would be pointless for me to have it. My A1C is 12 and I really do want to lower it. Im newly married and want to start a family but not till im healthy. I figure if I cant take care of this for myself i'll do it for my husband. Im looking into the Minimed Pump, but right about now anyone with suggestions about which Pump would be the best or just even if its good for me would be helpful.

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'you may require', why read it in a book, it's not theory, it's what I practice and that's not a standard protocol for DKA...you said DKA was due to insulin resistance (again read in some book), that's not at all the case. Insulin resistance may have nothing to do with going DKA and a larger dose of fast acting and/or IV insulin to bring blood sugars down doesn't at all mean 2 - 3 times higher dose then a normal dose.

of course it matters what her diagnosis is; for insurance, for the correct treatment. many type 2's don't do well on insulin and need an oral too, who knows. a proper diagnosis is very important and the recommended treatment doesn't seem to be working.

all add one more (last) comment; kaytae, we've all been there, probably. this isn't about me but i too, due to being too scared not because i didn't take this disease seriously, didn't want to take my insulin, no way, no how...for me when first diagnosed and still honeymooning, i tested, tested and at least took my basal and just didn't eat. it was bad. i had some people on this site (gerri kindly helped me through this with a somewhat stern hand) and my health care team kick some sense into me, I had to do it! I, we, have no choice. i felt awful nearly all the time..mostly because i wasn't eating as a way of trying to manage this. But it was with some 'tough love' a kick in the butt that I started getting on top of this. i am a type 1 and the realization of going DKA again was not a reality i wanted. so, if my words seen harsh, it's because it's you that has to take charge of this and make sure you do reserach, see an endo and make sure you're getting the correct meds, care and diagnosis.

The only thing we could accuse the OP of is not testing and none of the planning or debating will work very well with any type of diabetes if you don't suck it up and test. There's no way around it. A CGM won't work very well unless it's calibrated correctly and, in my admittedly very limited experience, if I calibrate the MM one when my BG isn't tight/ stable, it will result in a few hours where the "tool" and "IRL" won't be on the same page. Not an insurmountable crisis but I can't see any way around testing a lot for the OP.

I haven't had 300-400 BG for a long time but, if she ran down to the 50s after breakfast, that was my experience from like the early 1990s, when I started paying attention to the stuff until 2008, when I got the pump.

To me, to suggest 60/60 +20/ meal seems like a reasonable response to a doctor confronted with a patient who says "I haven't tested". My excuse was to always say "I'm fine" and not bother lugging my meter with me and not to have any logs. I can only imagine what sort of hilarious stuff is in my medical charts? I had a run of maybe 5, maybe 8 years I was able to blow off seeing the doctor entirely, since Walgreens did such a great job finagling refills without me complying with the doc. When she finally "cut me off", I flipped out (BG in the 60s too...) and punched the clipboard in half (this before martial arts...) because I was annoyed, sort of with the predicament and sort of with myself for having put myself in that position.

It doesn't really matter whether it's T1 or T1.5 or T2 but to fix the high BG w/ insulin, you would have to come up with a plan and the plan would have to include testing. I managed to avoid insulin resistance and I'm not sure how that would complicate things but I took pretty big-assed R-shots for years, fixing highs w/ IV shots to knock them down more quickly. A1C was ok but it was a rather wild ride. I still tested a lot too though...

I've been one of those to fingerstick and take shots from the beginning (my problem was more dealing with overwhelming anger and resentment). As with all diabetes, YMMV, and some people just duck into denial which is understandable. There is nothing fun or fair about managing diabetes for life but if I knew my bg was typically running in the 4-500's I would be crawling out of my skin wanting to get it down. There is no way to dodge complications if you run that high long-term.

Kaytea, I really hope you take advantage of your inspired feeling to get a handle on this. As others have said, testing needs to be your new best friend.

So far has been a good day all in all. I took my Lantus last night with a BG of 152 and this morning woke to a BG of 56. I ate and then tested 3 hours later and my BG is now 95. Which these should seem low to me but I don't actually feel bad. When I woke with my 56 I felt off but that's expected. Lol I kinda feel like I don't require as much water which I feel is making me dehydrated (my urine is extremely dark). But that's just a theory. Havent taken any Humalog today I just don't want to bottom out.

Those are really good numbers. You will likely find that with your blood sugars in a more normal range, you will need less insulin (perhaps much less). So work closely with your doctor and/or educator to properly adjust your insulin. Waking to a 56 is a sign that your basal is too high.

And having high sugars can cause dehydration. It would be goo to drink plenty of liquids and try to restore your electrolytes. That should help you feel better as well.

Are you conceiving of the Humalog as a "ratio"? "X insulin to Y food" so that if you have 2Y food, you'd take 2X insulin? That's kind of critical? If you only have a little bit of food (X/2...) you should still need a little bit of insulin, otherwise the food doesn't "work"? That being said, when I started cutting back my food and insulin a few years ago, I didn't know anything about dose matching and just guessed too. My A1C went *up* (I was doing some other stuff too...) and I eventually hit upon just the solution that got this thread going, and got a pump.

If you think about the delivery, a syringe is much faster and consistent, no leaky infusion sets to worry about, scar tissue, no batteries, Lot's of technology behind the insulin pumps, lot's of moving parts, investigate each pump very well, find out about training and support and test it out. We have been using the Animas since the 1000, since J&J Life Scan took over, the support is very poor, when I called them for an emergency on a malfunction on the Ping, it took over 12 hours for a competent person to call back. Then I was referred to the order department for supplies and they could not verify I had an Rx for supplies!! Skip the Animas Ping.

I can't disagree more with Tough Type 1 about the Animas Ping and customer service. I have had wonderful service from Animas in procuring the pump through my insurance company. they handled all the necessary steps to getting the pump through two attempts with my insurance company. They gave me complete and steller training. They have supported me by telephone and e-mail when I have had a question. They have never messed up or delayed an order. Beyond that, there are many things to like about the Ping. the pump communicates fully with its companion meter. The colour screen is easy on the eyes. The software is easy to use, gives excellent reports and does all the logging necessary for your endo, the software that runs the pump has a lot of fail-safes in it, so that it is virtually impossible to make a mistake.

My guess is that if someone has poor customer service with a pump company, there is something underlying that is causing the problem. There could be no Rx for supplies on file from the physician. (Infusion sets and reservoirs are sld by prescription only.) There could be an out of date pump or a pump not registered to the purchaser. There could be unresolved issues between the pump owner, insurance company and supplier concerning billing.

Beyond this, according to my endo, pump insulin delivery is far more efficient and control is much tighter than MDI. The ump delivers insulin on a more constant volume and in smaller insulin incriments than a syringe does.

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